That has to be the longest answer ever for a short question. I think you should change your moniker to Dncwillie. I can't tap as fast.
But you ignored the question. you said it was warm where you were and based on that how could anyone doubt global warming. I asked if it is cold somewhere else, why is your warm proof and their cold not proof.
Now you may say it is complex, but don't cite your warm season as proof.
It is now called climate change, but the thing that the believers are ultimately saying is "WARMNING."
Al Gore said, "The earth has a fever." "The earth is burning up."
Yes, you are right that climate is an incredibly complex thing. In order to believe Global warming, you have to believe that the computer models upon which it is based managed to incorporate every thing that influences climate and got all of those things in the right proportion.
If they did not get them right, then the conclusion is wrong. A computer that estimates it will take 500 gallons of gas to get from NY to LA is pure bull shit if it does not take into account elevation through mountains, detours, weight of the passengers in the car, wind velocity, whether they will use the aid conditioner, whether the tires are properly inflated, and every other fact that affects milage.
Likewise, if you are predicting how the climate will change, your prediction is only as good as you are close to accounting for every variable in the right proportion.
The fact that someone may have said the southwest will be warm and the northeast wet does not prove the validity of the rest of the theory just because one year or two years were right.
Again, unless they got every factor down correctly GIGO
Finally, it isn't so GAG can make a buck. It is so that I can drive to Pomona at a decent price. So I can fly to Barcelona next year at a good fare. So that you can have a flat-screen, plasma TV.
Posted By: willywonka4u
First, let me just state that I'm not an expert on this topic. Secondly, let's put some bad framing to rest. From day 1 it ought to have been called global climate change instead of global warming, so as to not confuse the layman.
Now onto some of the science as I understand it. Climate is an incredibly complex thing. And the more I learn about it, the luckiler I realize we are. It's not just what our atmosphere is made of, it that we're an ideal distance from the sun. Consider that Venus' atmosphere is so dense with CO2 that it's never gets below 400 degrees there. Mars has a very thin atmosphere and no magnetisphere to prevent it from being stripped by solar winds. Mars gets as cold as -225 degrees.
It's not just the distance from the sun that matters. Without our moon (which is massive for the size of our planet), then our poles wouldn't remain at a steady axial tilt of 23.5 degrees. If we didn't have our moon tomorrow, the axial tilt would go haywire, and large parts of the earth would remain in total darkness, while other parts would remain in never ending daylight.
It is a little unsettling to think that only 20 miles of atmosphere protects us from the vacuum of space. But it takes more than just the right distance from the sun, an dense atmosphere, and a massive moon to give you stable hospitable climate. It takes massive ocean currents and wind currents that all function to redistribute heat from one part of the planet to another.
Look at a map of the world at 60 degrees north longitude. You'll notice something interesting. The entire world at this longitude is nearly uninhabited because it's so fucking cold. There's two major exceptions. Europe and Iceland.
Iceland remains fairly warm because of volcanic activity. Europe remains warm because of the Gulf Stream ocean current. This current pulls warm water off the the horn of Africa, and it makes Europe warmer than it would otherwise be. Without it, London might look like Anchorage. This same ocean current makes NYC and Boston hospitable. Without it, living in Boston would be like living in Pierre South Dakota.
During the end of the last major ice age most of the northern part of the United States was under a massive sheet of ice. The melting of this ice created the Great Lakes, and when that happened a massive deposit of fresh water went into the Hudson, as it interrupted the Gulf Stream current. And since it ceased to cycle, Europe went back into an ice age. I guess it's a good thing there isn't another massive sheet of ice near by that is melting. Opps. I guess I forgot Greenland.
Climate is an incredibly complex thing. It can lead to massive droughts, and we've seen Lake Chad completely dry up already. Warmer oceans will increase in volume even without ice melt. Frozen CO2 at the bottom of the ocean could melt and be released into the air, causing a positive cycle loop. Warmer temperatures would cause greater moisture in the air, giving us record rainfall, snowfall, typhoons and hurricanes.
The fact that excessive CO2 remains locked away in oil beneath the ground is a life saver. It's theorized that one of the reasons why dinosaurs were so big was because back then the atmosphere was far richer with oxygen. Initially, this planet didn't have much free oxygen, and as a result the ocean was green and the sky was red. For this reason, life originated in the oceans, plant-like lifeforms similiar to algae, releasing oxygen as a waste product for billions of years. This eventually made life on land possible, and with large animals there were also large plants. Massive trees living in massive swamps, their foilage packing down year after year creating all the world's fossil fuels today. As that extra carbon got locked away underground, the climate changed, and while the average size for an animal back then was the size of a triceratops, today it's the size of a dog.
Years ago I saw some climate change models predicting that the Southwest U.S. will become more dry, while the north mid atlantic would see increased rainfall. And just this year, Vermont had flooding that took out bridges while Texas saw record droughts and fires.
The bottom line here is we're all playing Russian Roulette so guys like GaG can make a buck. But the real bitch of it is that not all the money in the world can save someone from in uninhabitable planet.
